Results: The History of News and Communication *Part Eight* The printing press was a factor in the establishment of a community of scientists who could easily communicate their discoveries through widely disseminated scholarly journals.

With this advancement, the scientific revolution emerged. A radical change in art, science and culture was seen and connecting these three aspects was the invention of the printing press in 1440. Were you aware that the sharp increase in literacy broke the monopoly of the literate elite education and learning and bolstered the emerging middle class.?

Groups of scientists who were consequently able to easily express their experiments and discoveries by using heavily circulated scholarly journals, clearly showing how books helped bring on the scientific revolution. The increasing popularity of the printing press made authorship a more attractive profession as it had become more accessible and profitable It became a matter of great importance who had written the texts, as well as, when the precise formulation and time of writing took place. Before the heightened popularity of printed texts, the author was less important and the name was usually lost. The emergence of the scientific revolution became the driving force for scientists to record their findings through print such as books and journals. Scientists like Galileo were inspired by the ideas and theories of other scientists which lead to even more and greater discoveries. Were you aware of Galileo before this survey?

Of course, books and other forms of printed texts were not always looked upon so positively, especially at a time of strong religious beliefs and various theories. The conflict between the heliocentric and geocentric theories acted as 'fuel to the fire' of the scientific revolution. The church followed the geocentric theory heavily; which suggested that Earth is at the center of the universe and other planets and the sun revolve around it. Later, in 1543, Copernicus published a book which suggested the Heliocentric model, going against the teachings of the church. Consequently (despite having strong advocates for the theory such as Galileo Galilei) the works of Copernicus were forbidden by the Catholic Church. Are you familiar with Copernicus?

This essentially highlights the role that the printing press had on the scientific revolution; knowledge was now much more accessible and this become a crucial aspect of the shift of society from Medieval to early modern, and Pierce Butler suggests this in his own works; "down to the fifteenth century all European books were pen written and that ever since that time most of them have been printed. We know likewise that is the same fifteenth century Western culture laid off its medieval characteristics and became distinctively modern". Were you aware that the breakup of Europe's religious unity corresponded with the spread of printed text; there was a direct impact which shifted a focus onto more scientific ideologies rather than religious ones?

There was the mass production of new and old text being produced, as well as the first copyright laws being passed. This meant that academics of science were able to gain credit for the theories and experiments which they discovered. All of these factors highlight the importance of the printing press in the scientific revolution; academia were able to publish their findings and research to the general public without censors from the Church. Did you know this could be done by anyone, allowing a substantial amount of new ideas and thoughts being digested by society?